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Ambassadors of Reconciliation
(John 7:45-52, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21)
Mari Ikeda
As a new school year or a new fiscal year starts in April in Japan, many of you may have been in a new environment from April. I wonder how you are feeling after a month since then. Even if there are no major changes in our living environment, we live our lives interacting with various people on a daily basis, and there are both positive and negative stimulations. I work at a social welfare shelter during the week, and this past April my boss was replaced. When the personnel change was announced in March, I was surprised to find myself more upset than I thought I would be. I felt like my prospects had been derailed because I had managed to get along with my previous boss, even though we had had our fair share of disagreements. Then I realized that maybe I was trying in the wrong direction. No matter who my boss is in a human organization, there is only one master I wish to serve, and that is Jesus. In my work at the shelter, not only with the clients, but also among my co-workers and to my boss, all I have to do is to share the love of Jesus. And yet, before I knew it, I was turning away from Jesus in order not to be disliked by people before me, and in order to be appreciated. Once I realized this, my job at the facility became easier than it had been. It becomes easier to think about what to say or not to say when you can focus on the priority being to share the love of Jesus. Of course, I don’t always know the right answer, and I have to do things with no confidence, and there are many things I know I should do but can’t, but I still have a clear direction to head in. The passage from the Gospel of John that we will read today gives us practical examples of how to share the love of Jesus in our various relationships. It doesn’t mean to do anything dramatic, but it teaches us the importance of going against what is contrary to the love of Jesus. Today I want to read from a passage that illustrates this very specifically, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, omitting the middle of the passage.
A. Jesus’ love compels us to bear the ministry of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:14-21)
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. …19 …God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
If we had to sum up our role in society in a few words, it would be to be God’s ambassadors of reconciliation. Now that we know that Jesus gave his life for all people and forgave the sins of all people, we cannot help but encourage others to receive that love. Receiving God’s love and restoring a loving relationship with God means being reconciled to God. On God’s side, He has already extended His hand of reconciliation, and all we have to do is take that hand. Anyone who has first taken that hand and come to live in God’s love is a messenger of God’s reconciliation. What is important is that this task of reconciliation is not a task that is forced upon us, but a desire that we cannot help but do so. “For Christ’s love compels us,” as Paul says here. Knowing that we are loved by Jesus and the magnitude of that love, we are assured that that same love is poured out to all. So we cannot help but wish that those who do not yet know it would know it. And if people dismiss that love, we cannot help but oppose it. We feel that we must clearly oppose those who brush off the hand that God is extending to us or who stand in the way of those who are trying to grasp that hand. That is the ambassador of reconciliation. Now I would like to read the Gospel of John chapter 7 to see what exactly this ambassador of reconciliation should do. First, verses 45-49.
B. Even in a hierarchical relationship (45-49)
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. 47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
1. Being in a higher position doesn’t mean being always right.
We live in a variety of hierarchical relationships. Parent and child. Teacher and student. Boss and subordinate. I think it is necessary for someone to be in charge in order to protect those who are in a socially vulnerable position. We also need someone who is responsible for guiding the group in the right direction.
But when we are in a superior position, we have a tendency to mistakenly believe that we have acquired the power to rule rather than the responsibility to protect those in lower positions. When we are in a lower position, we abdicate our responsibility to think and decide for ourselves and blame the person in a higher position for everything. However, of course, if the person in a higher position is overbearing and controlling, the person in the lower position may become afraid to have his or her own opinion and lose oneself. This leads to child abuse, domestic violence, and workplace harassment.
We are all God’s children, loved by God. We all have shortcomings, but no matter what our position in society, no matter what our hierarchical position, we are still human beings of equal value. Being in a higher position does not mean that we are always right, and being in a lower position does not mean that we do not have to think about anything or that we should not think.
2. We should not overlook the mistakes of those in higher positions.
The passage we just read is an exchange between the religious leaders, including the chief priests and Pharisees, and the temple guards who were ordered by them to go get Jesus. The guards are blamed for disobeying their bosses’ orders and returning without capturing Jesus. They might have been fired from their jobs or expelled from the Jewish community later. They took such a risk and disobeyed their boss’s order. They could have excused their failure to catch Jesus by saying, “Because the disciples and the crowd got in the way,” but they did not. They said, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” They admitted that they had not obeyed the order based on their own judgment. What were the words of Jesus that the guards heard? If we look back in the Bible, we can assume the guards were there when Jesus said, “I came down from God and I will returning there. You will look for me, and you will not find me.” They may have also heard Jesus said, “Whoever is thirsty, come to me. Whoever believes in me will have living water flowing from within them.” I guess that the guards felt the awe that Jesus was something close to God, but also felt the familiarity that invited them all to be with him. It was an attraction of Jesus that cannot yet be well explained in words. And it moved them to disobey their superiors’ orders. I think they thought, “Is the judgment of our bosses that this person is a bad person really correct? We can’t take this person captive.” They had not yet clearly recognized the love of Jesus. That was something no one understood until the events of the cross. Still, I think we can take this action of theirs as an example of Jesus’ calling us to the ministry of reconciliation. They were not confident that their superiors were wrong, nor were they confident that their judgment was correct. But they wanted to protect Jesus even at the risk of losing their own social status. Something more important than their social status and position, something that they could not give an inch, was born in them through Jesus.
The love of Jesus that drives us to the ministry of reconciliation works not only in a hierarchical relationship, but also among peers in equal cooperative relationships. Let us read the second half of the passage, vv. 50-52.
C. Even in a cooperative relationship (50-52)
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
1. It is wrong to consider anyone who does not agree with us as an enemy.
Whether at school or in the workplace, we seek out friends with whom we can cooperate, and if we have a common enemy, we seek to strengthen the unity among our peers. This is easy to understand when we consider wartime and the actions of politicians, but I believe that the tendency to seek unity among peers occurs within any kind of group. Japan may traditionally be more prone to this tendency than the West. Unity among peers can be a good effect, but it can also be dangerous. Even if the initial purpose of the group is to protect justice, before long the unity of the group becomes an end in itself and people start to do things that are contrary to justice. We do not realize even if we are making a mistake because we feel secure in the knowledge that we have friends. We are also quick to consider anyone who does not agree with us as an enemy and try to eliminate them. When this happens, we no longer pursue what is justice and what is truth, but everything becomes hypocrisy and injustice to protect our own position.
2. We should not overlook the mistakes of our friends.
Nicodemus, who appears here, was a Pharisee and a Jewish religious leader who had once visited Jesus at night, alone and hiding from the public. (John 3) He was probably already attracted to Jesus at that time, and he makes a defensive remark about Jesus here as well. He begins by saying, “According to our law,” emphasizing that he, like his colleagues, is a man of the law. Thinking back, Nicodemus approached Jesus in a similar manner when he first met Him. He may have been cautious at best, timid at worst. But the fact that he clearly points out the errors of his colleagues here based on the law is because he was already caught by Jesus’ charm. He spoke based on the law because his colleagues were most likely to listen. We can say that he resisted the errors of his colleagues to the best of his ability at this point in time. Unfortunately, Nicodemus’ thoughts did not reach his colleagues. All they could think of was that Nicodemus had betrayed them and taken Jesus’ side.
What kind of life did Nicodemus lead after this? All we know from the Bible is that after Jesus’ death on the cross, Nicodemus was one of several people who assisted in the burial of his body. There is no further record of Nicodemus. We do not know if he met the resurrected Jesus or if he quit the Pharisees. But I believe that he always remembered what Jesus said to him when he met Him for the first time. That is, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless the are born again.” (John 3:3)
Fulfilling the ministry of the ambassadors of reconciliation is good enough if, like the guards and Nicodemus, who appeared today, we are moved by Jesus and do what we can do in our respective given positions, even if we are not sure what we are supposed to do. It is a walk of life that is renewed again and again by Jesus’ love, as Jesus told Nicodemus.
(Prayer) Lord Jesus, we are weak people who are shaken daily in various relationships. Nevertheless, when we met you and you taught us about your love, you gave us the strength to live a new life. Please tell us immediately when we are making wrong decisions. Give us the humility to accept it. And please give us the wisdom and courage to tell others when we notice they are doing something that is contrary to your love. And teach us more of the joy of seeing Your love realized all around us. Lord Jesus, we trust and love you more than anyone else. In Your name we pray. Amen.
Summary
Among those who were attracted to Jesus’ words and deeds were those who defied their superiors’ order to “go get Jesus,” and those who admonished their colleagues who insisted that Jesus was a sinner, saying that they should first listen to Jesus’ own words. Everyone who is touched by the love of God that Jesus teaches will defy anything that contradicts that love, without fear that their social position will be jeopardized. To share God’s love with all people is also to go against everything that is contrary to God’s love. This is also what it means to realize God’s justice, the ministry of “reconciliation” that God has entrusted to us.
For Discussion
- What does it mean to be reconciled with God?
- What do you want to do first now as an ambassador of reconciliation? Who do you want to talk to?